


Kumquats

by Sei_Bellissima



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Dragons, Families of Choice, Family Feels, Gen, Humor, I love these dorks, Kumquats - Freeform, Shenanigans, SteamWorld Quest Spoilers, Wait where did these feels come from, silliness, that wasn't supposed to happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2020-08-16 03:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20176783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sei_Bellissima/pseuds/Sei_Bellissima
Summary: All Copernica needed were some samples from the forest. She couldn’t go out right now, however, as she needed to prepare the classroom for the day. Just go out to the woods, grab the coggarn fruit and come back; It should have been a simple task!Unfortunately, nothing’s simple when Armilly’s involved.





	1. A Juicy Mess

This could not be happening. It just couldn’t.

Giant boxes of kumquats just don’t disappear out of thin air like that. That only happens to boxes of cookies when you leave them alone with Armilly (Who proceeds to go into an hours-long sugar rush not even ten minutes later).

So where had Copernica’s precious parcel of citrus run off to?

Galleo had said, “Fruit cannot run away because it doesn’t have legs” and went on to help her search the classroom, being sure to check the high shelves that Copernica couldn’t see over. This was Copernica’s classroom yet she built high shelves that she couldn’t reach in it. Galleo never understood that.

“I swear, I had it right here on my desk!” Copernica said, looking over her desk for what must have been the millionth time that morning.

Galleo raised an eyebrow. “Did you check underneath it?”

“I can’t move it but I doubt an eight-pound box of fruit would be sitting under there.” She then attempted to prove her point by kneeling down and sticking her hand underneath her desk. It barely fit in the small gap; no way would a big crate of kumquats get under there.

Galleo, in all his obtuse glory, shrugged, walked over and grabbed the desk, lifting it off the ground with little effort.

Copernica sat there, baffled, before a falling paper brushed her face and moved her glasses the slightest bit. That managed to bring her out of it and she hastily swept the page off the floor.

“Is it under there?” Galleo, still as oblivious as ever, asked.

Papers were raining off of her desk faster than she could pick them up. Copernica didn’t like this. She did not like any of this at all. Why has Algyron forsaken her?

“It’s not,” she hissed, “Now put my desk down before you break something!”

Fortunately, Galleo complied. Unfortunately, he didn’t take the time to carefully lower it to the floor and instead dropped it with a heavy _BANG_. It was so sudden even poor little Benji was startled, the bird flapping his wings in a panic and fluttering up to his owner’s head. Still Galleo didn’t seem to understand what exactly it was he did, eyes narrowing in confusion as he reached up and tried to calm his little friend down.

Copernica wanted to scream.

She did, but she couldn’t really bring herself to do it. Her childhood friend was just standing there, ever oblivious, just trying his best to help her out...

She couldn’t stay mad at him in spite of herself.

With a sigh, Copernica rubbed her eyes, her knuckles dislodging her glasses in the process, before fixing them and managing to blurt out, “Try to be more careful next time? Please?”

“...Okay?”

“Ugh, you can be really hopeless sometimes, you know that? You’re almost as bad as ‘Milly.”

Something finally seemed to click in those cheerful eyes of his, his face falling. “Oh no, ‘Leo, I didn’t—”

“I’m sorry!” he bawled, bringing his hands up to his cheeks. “I—I just wanted to help...”

“I know, I know, and you did! You checked all the high shelves for me.” Copernica came up to him and curled her arms around one of his own, patting his shoulder. “I appreciate the help, Galleo. I really do.”

“You do?”

“Of course I do... just, try to be a little more careful next time, ‘kay?”

“Okay... Maybe... I can get more samples for you?”

“That’s what I like to hear; use that noggin of yours!”

Copernica gave him a solid pat on the shoulder and a great big smile, then waved for him to follow her. She led him to a massive bookshelf against the wall, where she quickly scanned the countless spines and plucked one off the shelf.

“Couldn’t I just grab some from the market?”

“It won’t be that easy; not this time of year.” Copernica flipped through the book. “Occasionally the market will get off-season produce from other regions, but it’s not guaranteed.”

“So where do I go if they don’t have it?”

“For some reason kumquats have taken to growing in the Haunted Forest this time of year. It might have something to do with the Necronomicog’s effect on the area.”

“...It’s not gonna be poisonous or anything, is it?”

“No, it’s perfectly fine! It’s identical to a farm-raised kumquat, in fact. I will need about... twenty, I think. If you can’t get that many though that’s okay, I’ll make due with what I have.”

A loud banging suddenly came from the door, startling Copernica into dropping her book. Steam puffed out in an aggravated, constant stream from her face vents as she bent down to pick it up. “You can come in, it’s unlocked!”

The door _slammed_ open and in bounded Armilly, not paying one bit of attention to where she was going and somehow managing to topple over _five student desks_ while running over to them. Excitement practically radiating off of her, she shook from shortage of breath, her armor rattling the tiniest bit.

“You okay, ‘Milly?”

“Yeah, I’m good!” Armilly coughed and straightened up after finally catching her breath. “It’s just, you should’ve been there at the market, it was awesome!”

Copernica raised an eyebrow. “What was awesome? Was it as awesome as that funny round mushroom you found the other day?”

“No, even better! Orik sliced through an entire watermelon with his sword!”

...The other two weren’t quite sure to say to that. “He did?”

“Yeah, it was amazing! Dad’s not too happy about it though...”

“I wouldn’t be either, if someone doesn’t eat it soon it’ll go to waste.”

“That’s why I told him Galleo could take it to the orphanage for the kids!”

Said robot somehow looked flabbergasted and insulted at the same time. “Oh come on! I already have to go grab something for Coco.”

At this, Armilly perked up, grabbing her friend’s shoulders. “You’re going on a quest?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“It’s not a quest, it’s an errand...”

Seeing a chance to pipe in, Copernica said, “Hey Armilly, did you happen to pass by Famer Aurantiaco’s stand while you were at the market?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Did you happen to see any kumquats?”

“Nope. He had plenty of grapes, though.”

Copernica looked at Galleo with the smuggest look on her face. “Looks like you’ll be going to the Haunted Forest after all. May as well take that watermelon with you since you’ll be in the area.”

“Am I not supposed to have a relaxing day today? Is that it?”

“Take Armilly with you. Give her something to do.”

“Please tell me you’re joking, please tell me you’re joking, plea—”

Armilly ran around Galleo and started pushing against his back. “Let’s go, ‘Leo!”

“Why meeeeeee...”

Copernica couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. “Have fun, you two!”

* * *

It was a big watermelon. Galleo wasn’t happy one bit. How exactly did he get roped into this again?

“_The two heroes prepared themselves for another adventure filled with peril and excitement!_”

Oh yeah, Armilly was involved; that’s probably why.

“Armilly, we’re just gonna drop this watermelon off and get some kumquats, that’s it.”

“Coco and I went out to the forest for a peppermint puffer and look what happened!”

“Well things are different now. There’s no evil army running around and kidnapping people.”

“No power hungry birds either.”

“No kooky druids...”

“And no narcissists putting the world in danger just to make them feel good about themselves,” finished a new voice.

Armilly yelled and jumped onto Galleo, her visor coming down over her eyes.

“Armilly, stop being dramatic; it’s just the twins. Oh look, Orik’s here too.”

“...Oh.”

“Can you get off now please?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

Armilly slowly lowered herself to the ground and lifted her visor, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. She couldn’t believe she showed weakness like that, much less in front of her _hero_.

Orik didn’t seem to be perturbed, though. Tarah on the other hand was struggling to hold in her laughter. “You should’ve seen the look on your face,” she said after a minute.

“What are you guys doing here?” asked Galleo, “What’s that on your cloak, Orik?” He motioned towards the dark pink splotches on Orik’s robe. What a shame, it was such a nice robe and now it’s without a doubt ruined…

Not missing a single beat, Orik, with a completely straight face, replied, “The blood of my enemies.”

Tarah and Thayne swore they heard the mechanisms controlling Galleo’s jaw clicking as it dropped.

“...What? I’m kidding!”

“Furry head’s got melon juice on ‘im,” Tarah explained.

Thayne looked at his sister disapprovingly. “Sis, stop calling him that, it’s mean!”

Tarah whipped around with a smirk and said, “Make me—”

“Stop arguing, children.”

Tarah looked up with a look on her face that said “Really?” What Orik called an “argument” was _barely_ skirting on the edges of one and something about his tone told the twins he wanted to parent them just because he could.

“Furry head.”

“Is that from this watermelon that you cut up?” asked Galleo after he finally picked his jaw off the floor.

“Indeed it is.”

That spark of excitement entered Armilly’s eyes again. “You should’ve been there Galleo, it was epic!”

“Okay, but what even possessed you to do that? You just don’t do random things like that; Armilly’s the one that does things like that.”

“I dared him to do it because I was bored,” Tarah explained, “but I didn’t think he would actually do it...”

“Nothing wrong with honing my iaido skills every once in a while.” Orik said with a wry smile.

“...And then he threw it into the air and swung his sword like this—” Milly swung her sword down near Galleo’s head, making him scream like a little girl. Benji twittered anxiously and flew on top, pecking at Galleo’s blue locks.

“We haven’t even gotten to the forest yet and you’ve already pulled your sword out!” He said angrily.

Tarah piped up just then. “Wait, you guys are going to the forest? The Haunted Forest?”

“Yeah. Copernica needs kumquats for her class and for some reason it’s the only place they grow this time of year.”

“Hey, I love kumquats!” said Tarah. Thayne agreed, nodding his head, his little bunny ears bouncing a bit as he did so. “Maybe we could join you guys; it’s been a while since we went on a trek together.”

Orik smiled at them, then looked at Galleo. “It’s settled then, we’ll come along with you.”

“Who said anythi—I didn’t—gah, forget it. Let’s just go.”

Galleo stormed off, fervently turning Benji’s key to try and calm himself.

“What’s boilin’ his steam?” Tarah asked.

“His furnace?” said Armilly, sounding unusually unsure of herself.

“You take everything literally.”

Armilly stared at Tarah, not really sure how to respond to that.

“What? I like that about you. You’re fun!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have a posting schedule for this
> 
> So yeah chapters will come when they come


	2. Breakfast and Dads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't planned the chapter titles for this fic so I'm winging it
> 
> It's midnight where I am, I'm sleepy, so that's where this wacky title probably came from ashdksjhfks

“Coco said she needs about twenty kumquats,” said Galleo. He shifted the box the watermelon was situated in under his arm, struggling to find a comfortable position. They’ve been walking for quite a while and his arms did not appreciate lugging this big thing around.

“Can we grab more than that? I’m starving!” Armilly said, rubbing her stomach to help get her point across.

“Did you forget to eat breakfast again?”

“Yeah, and my parents rushed me out of the house so it wasn’t like I could grab something real quick...”

“Am I the only one who ate breakfast this morning?”

“I had tea and biscuits, if that counts...” said Orik.

Tarah – who was at the head of the group – nodded. “Yeah, we ate too. We just feel like having some kumquats. It’s been a while.”

Galleo grumpily vented steam from his pipe. Walking to the Haunted Forest without Merchant’s help took a long while, and he always dreaded the hike. He might have gotten used to getting out of the house more, but he still hated going on long walks. He loved hanging out with the kiddos at the orphanage though, so it was a biweekly trouble he was willing to put up with.

As the group trudged on through the fields, the scenery around them slowly began to change: long, green strands of grass shrank under their feet, becoming as short as the moss it mingled with along the dusty path. Trees grew barren, empty branches reaching out like thin, mangled fingers into the sky. Poisonous purple mushrooms lined the path, as did the dry, naked bushes, choked to death by the thorny vines crawling up their roots. In the dark environment many creatures didn’t hesitate to make their presence known, their chittering, croaking and howling echoing throughout the trees.

“_The scenery darkened as the creatures of the Haunted Forest came to life, chilling the heroes to their very cores_.”

Tarah looked back with a confused look on her face, yet the way her ears perked up betrayed her amusement. “What are you going on about? I’m not scared.” The twins had grown up with the Haunted Forest next door, the noise of the wildlife lulling them to sleep at night; they had long grown used to it. The others, Galleo especially, seemed quite unnerved when the Merchant had dropped them off at first, but they got better. They didn’t look bothered at all now, so Tarah figured Armilly was just being her strange self again.

“That was a pleasant walk,” Orik commented.

Galleo grumbled, “Yeah right.”

“So where are the kumquats?” Armilly asked.

“Don’t ask me; Coco only told me they grew in the forest, not where exactly.”

Tarah’s ears dropped and she crossed her arms, tapping her elbow. She was clearly trying to recall something but she appeared a little frustrated. “I think we know where they are?”

“Oh _course_ you do...”

“Quiet, froghead, I said we _think_ we know where they are. We don’t know for _sure_.”

Thayne immediately contradicted her words by pointing to the right with his dagger and muttering “It’s that way” in an unusually certain voice. Thayne was the polar opposite to his sister when it came to their voices so hearing him talk so loudly was very unexpected.

Despite how sure he sounded Tarah still seemed to be lost, the ends of her ears hanging so low that they were in line with her optics. Thayne frowned and pointed again, only slightly changing his target this time. “Tarah, the stone pillars? The ones we made when we—”

“Ooooh, yeah, those things, whoops! I forgot.”

Armilly looked over to where Thayne had pointed and immediately took notice of a short pillar made of large stones piled on top of each other. Judging by the moss creeping up the sides, they had remained like this for a while. “What are those for?”

As quickly as they rose Tarah’s ears drooped again, her face softening into a rather hesitant and somber expression as she shared looks with her twin. She quickly perked up again, though, and started to explain, though her eyes still had that gloomy quality to them. “It was one of the first times we tried to escape from the orphanage. The managers had punished us by taking away our dinner and we were starving. We snuck out, I caught a whiff of something and we followed it. We used rocks littered throughout the forest to build pillars so we wouldn’t get lost.”

“We followed the scent all the way to a citrus grove and ate as much as we could,” Thayne added with a smile, but it instantly fell. “Tarah ate too much though, and she—”

For a split second this sheer look of terror entered Tarah’s eyes as she gave Thayne a forceful nudge in the shoulder. It went away so quickly that you would miss it if you blinked, and you would instead find her to seem completely unfazed while Thayne had this strong look of realization and embarrassment on his face. In fact, it almost looked like as if he wanted to shrink away and forget that he said anything, huddling close to his sister’s side as he kept whispering apologies to her. She was quick to assure him that it was okay, however, patting his back. The rest of the gang recognized that he almost blurted out something that they were never meant to hear, so they didn’t press further on it.

Orik’s face had gone pale as a sheet; normally he would try to hide fear like this, but this time it came on so suddenly he couldn’t hide it (The fact that he didn’t have his mask with him didn’t help matters). He shuffled up to one of the stone pillars and gently tapped the side with his katana—yet it was enough for a few tiny pebbles to tumble down the crumbling monument. “You two were so resourceful at such a young age; I can hardly believe it...” He got up and turned around, shutting his eyes and scratching his chin in thought. “And I didn’t think that the managers would be so harsh to take away food from innocent children!” Orik gripped the hilt of his katana in anger, his fist shaking with the urge to slice the twins’ wrongdoers. Lucky for them that they weren’t around anymore; if looks could kill… “You two are very resilient and I deeply apologize that you had to endure that.”

“Don’t apologize, _Dad_, it’s not your fault.”

Everyone froze.

Tarah was awfully cold and distant to the team when they first met her and Thayne. She made it clear that she wasn’t planning to become anything close to acquaintances to them, yet as time went on, the twins stayed, and…

Things weren’t cleared up yet, but the twins let their guard down and grew rather close to the rest. Orik, especially… The twins weren’t one-hundred percent sure yet, but he filled in the role of a parental figure quite nicely.

It still felt weird to admit that out loud, though…

“...Do you really think of me that way?” Orik asked, the poor guy still reeling from shock.

Yeah, Tarah wasn’t ready to confirm it yet.

“I’ll let you figure that out,” she said, voice laced with her signature snark. Thayne on the other hand was silent the whole time, unsure of what to contribute to the situation. But honestly, Tarah was thankful he didn’t add anything. For now.

“Can we go now? I’m starving!” said Armilly.

“Yeah, enough chatter. Follow us!”

The twins turned around again and resumed strolling down the path, Armilly trailing close behind. Galleo was about to join when he noticed that Orik had gone as stiff as a statue, his mouth agape. He was going to catch a fly in there if he didn’t close it soon…

Galleo scratched his head in confusion. “Orik?”

No change, no response, absolutely no reaction out of Orik.

Galleo waved a hand right in front of his face. Still nothing. “You okay, man?” he asked. He put a hand on his shoulder, hoping some physical contact would bring him out of it.

...Still nothing? What kind of a crazy trance did he get himself into?

As a last resort, Galleo picked Benji off of his head and placed him on Orik’s shoulder. The bird, still in a peckish mood after nearly getting sliced in half by Armilly earlier, took one good look at Orik and started pecking at his face.

Every time he got pecked, Orik blinked, and, much to Galleo’s relief, Benji’s interference finally brought Orik out of it and the old man yelled, “Aaaah! okay, I’m coming!”

He ran off so quickly that Benji fell from his shoulder, but Galleo managed to catch him before he fell too far. “Good boy, Benji!” he cooed, rubbing the little bird’s head as he started running to catch up with the rest.

Benji still wasn't quite happy with the whole situation.


	3. Hitting Rock Bottom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There goes Armilly's brain cells

Tarah did a loud, noisy sniff that made her brother giggle. Whether it was intentional or not, it was quite adorable to see. “Yep, I’m smellin’ it already,” she said, “Man, this brings back memories… How many times did we go down this trail and stuff our faces with fruit?”

Armilly gave the air a good whiff herself, but she couldn’t smell a single thing. “I’m not smelling anything...”

“The circumstances surrounding the twins’ upbringings caused them to have a better sense of smell and hearing than most steambots. Their lapin qualities no doubt contribute in some small form as well,” Orik explained.

“Wait, so you mean,” Galleo scratched his head as he tried to piece the situation together, “instead of getting taller… their senses grew stronger?”

Galleo would’ve gotten a faceful of Tarah’s ax (the broad side, thankfully) if Armilly hadn’t noticed and stopped him right in time. “HEY!” Tarah growled, bearing her teeth – which had adorable little fangs, Galleo just noticed. “I know we’re short but there’s no need to rub it in like that.”

“Don’t slap people in the face with your—”

“Being short can be fun though!” Armilly said.

Tarah looked skeptical. Thayne just looked terrified, like he was afraid his twin was about to konk out everybody in sight with her ax. “Yeah? How?” Tarah asked, her grip on her weapon tightening the smallest bit.

“Like… THIS!”

Armilly ran up to Tarah so quickly the latter was scared out of her wits enough to drop her ax. Armilly scooped the kid up into her arms and then threw her up in the air, making Tarah cover her eyes and scream loudly – so loudly is was comparable to the mighty roars of the Behemoth. “AAAAHH PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWWWWN!”

Thayne seemed bewildered. Galleo looked tired. Orik was downright _wheezing_. He wasn’t laughing, though. He was _horrified_. “Be careful, Armilly, please!” he begged. You could almost see the rust forming in his hair.

Thankfully, his words did not fall on deaf ears, as Armilly threw Tarah once more into the air (with less force this time) and then stopped, holding her in her arms. She was still screaming. “Hey!” Armilly said, trying to remove Tarah’s paws from her eyes. They seemed to be glued there… “I’m done now, you can stop screaming!”

Tarah did stop at this and moved her hands off her face, her entire frame trembling like a leaf. “...Oh.”

Thayne snapped out of his shock to rush up to his sister’s side as Armilly put her down. Her legs were jelly though and she fell on her bottom. “Are you okay, sis?”

“Yeah, I’m good… actually, that was kinda fun.” She couldn’t believe she was admitting that out loud. She didn’t want to lie to her brother, though, no matter how ridiculous it was…

Thayne snickered, “You didn’t sound like you were having fun...”

“I was scared at first, all right? But then I realized that—you’re not even listening anymore...”

Thayne had run up to Armilly, arms outstretched and making little grabby gestures with his paws. “Throw me, throw me!”

“Well all right,” Armilly said with a huge grin. She easily hefted Thayne up in her arms and threw him up in the air, the little bunny hollering in delight.

“Woo-hoooo!” he yelled as he descended. “Again, again!” he chanted when Armilly caught him. She complied and threw him further up into the heavens…

Much to Orik’s distress! The poor man’s eyes were wild with fear and it looked as if he was about to collapse, leaning over and panting, his hand to his chest. “Armilly, please!”

Thayne, however, was blissfully unaware of Orik’s suffering and kept shouting at Armilly to be thrown again and again, higher and higher into the sky—

Orik couldn’t take it anymore.

Willing his shaking legs to move, he sprinted over to Armilly and grabbed her shoulder, squeezing it. “_Armilly!_”

She finally stopped and turned around to Orik, carefully cradling Thayne in her arms. “Whoa! Are you okay, Orik? You look really pale...”

“Don’t… do that anymore,” he got out between shaky breaths. “You’re giving me a heart attack...”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know...” said Armilly, guilt written all over her face. She made to set Thayne down, “You’re right, I wasn’t being that careful—”

The boy clung to her arm like a vine. “But I liked being up high...”

“Well...” Armilly tapped her chin in thought. “...You wanna sit on my shoulders for the rest of the hike?”

“Okay!” said Thayne, scurrying up her arm and sitting on her shoulders, his legs dangling from either side of her head. It wasn’t as high as he would like to be, but it was enough. He liked feeling tall.

So did Tarah, but Thayne knew she was too proud to admit that.

Orik was still wheezing. Galleo came up to him with a concerned look on his face. “You okay, man?” he asked, putting a hand on his shoulder (his hand was so huge it completely covered his shoulder. It was almost comical to see).

Despite the fact that he felt like the pumps in his heart were going to give way a few minutes ago, Orik rasped, “I’m fine, just give me a minute...”

Galleo gave Orik one good look and knew that he was lying. He decided to have Benji help him again; the little bird was, honestly, being a lifesaver today… it should work this time, too.

However, instead of working his soothing charm like Galleo expected, when he was placed upon Orik’s shoulder, Benji immediately started pecking Orik’s face again. Galleo swiped him off and Benji started struggling in his grasp, flapping his tiny wings furiously and wiggling his legs.

“Hey, hey! Orik doesn’t need that right now.”

“Twee-teee-tete.”

“Are you still mad about earlier?”

“Tweee!”

“Look, I’m sure ‘Milly didn’t mean it. Right now Orik needs you to be a good little bird and to help calm his nerves. Can you do that for me?”

Orik managed a small chuckle while trying to catch his breath. “I assure you, I can handle myse—”

The bird was back on his shoulder and this time he had a much calmer disposition. Benji nuzzled up against his cheek and gradually, Orik felt his jitters melt away like butter, air coming into his bellows much easier. “Thank you,” he said, giving Benji a little pat on the head. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“He’s a natural!” said Galleo with a big smile. He gave Orik a thumbs up and gestured to Tarah that they could finally continue now that all of that was over with. He was quick to follow her, Armilly closely tailing them. Orik gave Galleo a confused look, glanced at Benji, then back at Galleo.

“Hang on, don’t you want him back?” Orik yelled.

“Nah, you can keep him for a bit; I don’t mind.”

“Oh… okay.” Galleo never went anywhere without Benji, so Orik was immensely surprised… could this be some kind of growth? Was Galleo overcoming his anxiety?

It couldn’t be that simple, but Orik knew this wasn’t really a good time to question him about it. They had some kumquats to collect!

“Don’t lag behind, Furry Head!”

“_Sis!_”

* * *

Looking back on it now, Galleo regretted not taking Benji back. The moments to follow, as they would turn out, were very stressful for him and he certainly could’ve used his little friend’s soothing abilities.

During the course of the walk, Armilly would occasionally stray off the path, curiously eyeing the bushes. The rest would have to prod her to get moving, and when she stopped again, she claimed that she was “making sure we didn’t miss any hidden treasure.” To which Tarah confidently replied, “If there was anything, you know for sure I would have gotten my paws on it by now.” Then again, the twins’ sense of smell seemed to be highly attuned to fruit – oddly enough – which made sniffing out treasure in this neck of the woods difficult. They still made sure to keep their eyes out for anything shiny, though.

Still, Armilly kept stopping. One time she actually found a coglin doing its business in the brush – which was gross – and Orik immediately swooped in and stabbed his katana clean through its chest, somehow killing it in one shot. “I’m still on edge from earlier,” he had said. It was a wonder he had dealt with it so quickly.

Armilly’s next discovery, however, set off a slew of events that, while hilarious to reflect on, were not at all fun to deal with at that particular moment.

She strolled over to a particularly leafy bush and pushed some of the twigs aside to see the ground it covered, where she found… something. Something orange and round, just like what they were looking for!

“Guys, I think I found some!”

The rest of the group had walked a bit ahead of her while she was snooping around, so they turned around and came trotting back towards her, thinking that she did, indeed, find some kumquats.

Thayne was still sitting on Armilly’s pauldrons at this point, and what she found sparked a faint memory in his mind, so in the midst of it all, he was trying to process the memory, the events transpiring around him, and the words to say to Armilly to stop her from making a stupid decision, if he had interpreted her motives correctly.

It was a bit too much for his mind to handle at once and he just kinda had a brain fart then and there.

Now, dear reader, all that was on Armilly’s mind was that she was hungry, and that when she found the kumquats, she was going to remedy that. Her mind recognized the orange ovalish shapes in front of her as the highly coveted fruit and she got so excited that she didn’t take the time to process what they actually were. In her delighted state she just snatched one of the objects off the ground, not noticing how hard it felt compared to the squishy skin of your average kumquat.

When Galleo saw her pull out something with a rather gray tint to it, he became confused. Kumquats didn’t look like that—

Oh. Oh no…

Galleo watched in horror as Armilly raised the object to her mouth, plopped it in, and swallowed.

Without chewing.

Galleo wasn’t shocked that she was capable of it, oh no. He’s seen her swallow things whole that shouldn’t be swallowed whole. What he was shocked about was that she had decided to swallow what might not have been a kumquat whole. It only went further to prove that she didn’t think before she acted…

With a sigh, Armilly gave her tummy a firm pat and said “That hit the spot” before reaching into the bushes again. Thayne was still on her shoulders but he seemed so horrified and appalled by what he just witnessed that his tongue was tied up into knots.

Galleo lunged forward before the situation got any worse and slapped Armilly’s other shoulder, distracting her. “Huh?”

“Armilly, are you sure those are kumquats?”

“…I think so? It tasted good but it was kinda rough going down.”

“Okay Armilly, number one, why would you swallow a kumquat whole, and number two, I don’t think that was even a kumquat you just ate.”

Thayne shuddered; he had lost grip on Armilly the second she swallowed what was definitely-not-a-kumquat and Galleo was utterly baffled the kid somehow hadn’t fallen off. He decided to err on the side of caution, setting the watermelon under one arm and grabbing the shell-shocked bunny with the other, cradling him around the torso.

“It wasn’t?” Armilly asked, oblivious as a brick wall.

“Well something about the way Thayne’s frozen up like an ice block tells me it wasn’t.”

Said steambot finally found his voice and stuttered, “She—she swallowed a—”

Tarah descended into hysterics; she was laughing so hard she was snorting. When she noticed that everyone was looking at her like she had grown a second head, she explained, “She swallowed a rock.”

Galleo became as stiff as the rabbit in his arms.

“Well, you could say she hit rock-bottom,” Orik said, failing to keep a grin off of his face.

“Are you for real?” Galleo shot at him.

Tarah chuckled and came over, lifting up the bush all the way. “While we were on our little trek we found a bunch of neat-looking rocks. Some shiny ones, ones with weird shapes or colors, you get the idea.”

Thayne, hearing his sister talk about their collection, finally snapped out of it and started chattering away like nothing happened. “We hid them under this bush. It was the first time we ever stowed away treasure we found. It might not be worth anything but it was treasure to us back then.”

“I loved to collect rocks too! My parents still have a box with my collection in the attic, I think,” Armilly said.

“Yeah. Anyway, we found a bunch of orange ones one day. We’re not sure where they came from but we thought they were cool so we brought them here,” said Tarah.

Galleo looked like he was about to faint. “Is no one concerned that ‘Milly just swallowed a rock the size of her fist?”

“Okay, yeah, why would you do that?” asked Tarah, that snark of hers leaking into her voice again.

“I was hungry, I _needed_ something in my belly!”

“But wouldn’t you take the time to chew it or somethin’? To, y’know, savor it? _To make sure it’s a damn kumquat?_”

“Umm… uhhhhh…. I was famished.”

“That doesn’t answer the question...”

Galleo sighed, “This is what I was talking about earlier with Armilly doing weird random things out of the blue.”

Tarah’s eyes widened in realization, but then narrowed, and you could clearly see her trying to hold in her giggles. “Ah. I see.”

His smile gone and replaced with a look of concern, Orik came up to Armilly and put a hand on her shoulder. “Armilly, are you feeling all right?”

“I’m good, why?”

“I know you literally have an iron stomach but I don’t think a rock’s gonna settle good in there,” said Galleo.

“...Well what’s gonna happen?”

“You’ll probably throw it up. You’ll know when the time comes.”

“I’m still surprised she managed to down that thing whole,” Tarah commented.

“She’s gone bigger before...” Galleo sighed. He just looked so exhausted...

“Yeah, I think one of the biggest things I’ve swallowed was a baked sweet potato.”

Everyone aside from Galleo and Armilly looked shocked. Perhaps a bit squeamish to boot.

“Hey, it was actually pretty small, especially for a potato,” Armilly said, “And I only did it because one of the kids in summer camp dared me to.”

“I still think it was a bad idea,” said Galleo.

“No way, ‘Leo! Everybody was really impressed.”

“One of the camp managers fainted.”

“That guy was weird, everything grossed him out and scared him. He shouldn’t have been on staff in the first place.”

“You had hiccups for five hours and you couldn’t keep anything down for an entire day.”

“...Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best idea.”

“Twelve years later, you finally admit it… _oh boy_...” There was not once ounce of joy on Galleo’s face. Seeing this, Benji hopped off of Orik’s shoulder and fluttered over to his owner’s feet, chirping anxiously. Galleo gratefully picked him up and nuzzled him against his cheek.

“Well, since Armilly’s fine can we keep on moving?” said Tarah. “Some actual food sounds good right about now.”

“Yeah, I’m still hungry,” Armilly said.

Galleo groaned. “Really, ‘Milly?”

The twins’ ears perked up at a distant rustling. Instantly on high alert, Tarah drew her weapon and faced the direction the noise came from. “Quiet! We’re not alone...” Thayne squirmed out of Galleo’s grasp and joined his sister, gripping his dagger tightly. Both of them were smelling something odd amidst the sickeningly sweet odor of citrus…

A large, scaly limb emerged from behind the tree trunks, the clawed foot making a loud _thud_ as the creature stepped forward.

“Is that a _dragon?!_” Armilly gasped.

“Yeah, and it’s frickin’ lost!” Tarah exclaimed. “Dragons don’t hang out around here, normally!”

The dragon came out of the trees further, revealing its long head. The group immediately noticed it had one of the old alchemy college’s harnesses on. The beast sniffed and pawed at the ground, then faced the group and let out a piercing roar.

“Oh _scrap_, here it comes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I make this seem more dramatic than it actually is? Perhaps. Did I enjoy doing so? YES!!


	4. Figs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s a big shameless reference to a Disney thing in this chapter and if you know me well you’ll probably see what it is fairly quickly lol
> 
> Also tell me if you see any mistakes please I had an awful migraine today and I’m super tired but decided to write this for whatever reason so I might have missed something hhhhh

As the dragon barreled towards the group, they were quick to discover a feature that set this one apart from the ones they’ve previously fought: it had enormous wings on its back, compared to the smaller wings attached to the front legs.

Stunned and not quite thinking the straightest, Armilly took in a deep breath, stretching her bellows to their limits and let out an ear-splitting _shout_. It made the twins, with their sensitive hearing, flinch and press their paws against her ears. Much to their surprise, however, the dragon had a similar reaction, screeching to a stop and sticking its tail in-between its legs. It whined like a kicked puppy and desperately scratched at the side of its head with its front claw.

Armilly, Galleo and Orik exchanged looks, then collectively decided to take advantage of its odd behavior by advancing on it, Armilly coming in on the front, Orik and Galleo flanking her on either side. The twins stayed back, still recovering from Armilly’s shrieking.

The dragon suddenly headbutted her and she went flying backwards, skidding against the dirt as she fell. Thayne, finally recovered, leaped in front of her and pointed his dagger at the dragon, a dark purple glow forming at the tip. He had temporarily drained a large chunk of the dragon’s magic power and was channeling it to himself and his sister, who was now advancing in Armilly’s place while the latter got up.

Galleo had landed a solid blow to the dragon’s neck, but the beast responded by swatting its tail at him, knocking him aside. The dragon whipped around to go at Orik, but the warrior’s instincts had not dulled over the years, so he was able to anticipate and dodge the incoming attack.

The dragon went at an incoming Tarah, easily sweeping her aside with its tail. Orik gasped and pulled out his katana, running at the beast—

It whirled around and pinned him to the ground with its foot, roaring loudly in his face. He flinched and screwed his eyes shut, not enjoying its hot, smelly breath against his face.

Armilly had gotten up and was charging at the dragon again, her sword raised above her head. “ORRIIIIIIIIK!” she yelled, ready to bring her sword down when suddenly—

The dragon _licked_ Orik, covering him in gooey slobber. If his robes weren’t soiled by watermelon juice earlier, they definitely were now.

Wiping some of the slime off his face, Orik blinked, smiled and said, “Ah. I should have known.”

Armilly’s sword dropped. So did her jaw.

The dragon huffed in Orik’s face and got off of him, turning around and sniffing at the ground. He stumbled onto his feet, shaking his good arm in attempt to get the slobber off.

Galleo looked shell-shocked, back against a tree, knees against his chest as his fingers dug into the dirt below. Benji was nowhere in sight, which didn’t help him…

The twins, after getting over their initial shock and bewilderment, approached Orik. “...I think you have some explaining to do, furry head,” said Tarah, earning yet another look of disapproval from her brother.

“This dragon is from the region of Pomeria,” Orik explained, gesturing to the dragon. “Its diet consists of mainly fruits, vegetables and other plant life.”

“...So it’s a vegetarian dragon?” Armilly said. She had picked up her sword and walked up to the group.

“That’s correct!”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Tarah said.

“So if it doesn’t eat steambots, can someone explain Benji’s disappearance to me?”

Everyone glanced over at Galleo, who was still leaning against the tree. The poor guy looked like he was feeling ten different things at once and was desperately trying to not let it all out.

All eyes wandered around for a bit, before landing on Tarah.

“Don’t look at me. When I took him, he tried to peck my eyes out. I’ve learned my lesson.”

A distant rustle drew Thayne’s attention, his bunny ears perking up. Getting down on all fours, he dashed towards a bush on the other side of the path and fished out a trembling Benji, running back to return him to his owner.

“Oh my gosh, thank you so much,” Galleo said, his voice cracking at every other syllable. He brought his shivering little friend up and nuzzled him against his cheek. “It’s okay, Daddy’s here...”

Tarah startled chuckling. She stopped when Armilly nudged her with her leg.

“So why’d the dragon lick you?” Armilly said to Orik.

“She no doubt smelled the watermelon juice staining my robes.”

“She?” said Thayne, curiosity clear in his tone.

“Females have shorter horns compared to their male counterparts.”

“The WATERMELON!” Galleo gasped, bolting up. “Where did that go, oh no...”

Tarah and Thayne exchanged a look, went into the bushes and came out with the box of watermelon between them. Thankfully, it had survived the surprise attack and it was still in one piece. When met with Galleo’s questioning look, Tarah said, “The nose knows, froggy.”

It seems that could also be said for the dragon, as she lifted her head, turned around and waddled over to the box, sniffing it eagerly. The twins held it back a little bit. “Oh no you don’t; these are for the orphans!”

The dragon only ignored her and pushed her out of the way with her snout, sniffing at the box again.

“Now what do we do?!” Thayne said, panicked.

“Hey Armilly, you’re loud; try yelling something at it!”

“Uhhh, okay,” Armilly said with a shrug. This whole thing felt oddly weird to her; she was always so eager to defeat dragons, but she couldn’t bring herself to beat one that didn’t pose a threat to them… not anymore, at least. “Um, down, girl, down!”

The dragon lifted her head again, turning slightly at the sound of Armilly’s voice. She sat her bottom on the ground, her long tail curling up around her legs.

“She’s tamed!”

“The Pomerian dragon is a very docile species. Steambots from the region are known to own them as pets,” said Orik. “In fact, they even ride on top of them and fly them around. I actually took a course on flying them when I was younger.”

“There’s even a collar around her neck!” Armilly pointed out. She walked up to the dragon to take a closer look. Thankfully, the beast didn’t seem bothered and let Armilly look at her collar with no problem. “Her name is Figs! And she belongs to someone named… Capricorn Blaira?” She looked up at the dragon, frowning at all the gear that was attached to her. It looked pretty uncomfortable. “Poor thing. I hope the college didn’t treat you too badly.”

“I wonder if this ‘Capricorn’ person isn’t someone from the college, but rather a dragon owner wondering what happened to their poor pet.”

Tarah looked absolutely baffled. “You think the college stole the dragon?”

“With how things were running there, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did,” said Galleo. It seems he was starting to get over his initial fear, coming back to the group—but still keeping a reasonable distance from the dragon.

“We should take these harnesses off!” Armilly said, tugging at them.

Orik dashed over frantically. “Careful, Armilly! We don’t want to hurt her...”

With both of them working together, they were able to remove the harnesses fairly fast—they slipped off just after a few clasps were disconnected. Once the head piece came off, they were all met with a lovely surprise—Fig’s round eyes were a sparkling blue, a heavy contrast to her faintly pink skin.

“Aww, her eyes are so pretty!” Armilly commented, rubbing the dragon’s snout. Figs leaned right into her touch, letting out a rumbly purr, wagging her tail a little bit. “Haha! Galleo, get over here! She’s not gonna hurt you.”

Galleo looked unconvinced. But, as if she was able to read minds, Figs stared at him with as much as a puppy-dog eyes look a dragon could manage. “Ugh, fine...” Galleo mumbled, coming up to them and hesitantly raised a hand to Figs’s snout. She sniffed it eagerly and then smushed her snout into his hand. “Huh...” Galleo rubbed the dragon’s head, unable to stop himself from smiling when she nuzzled up to him. “I guess not all dragons are blood-thirsty monsters!”

A loud, grumbling sound emitted from the dragon’s stomach and Figs whimpered, pulled herself away from Armilly and Galleo and shook herself.

“No wonder she tried to get the watermelon, she sounds hungry!”

Sniffing at the air, Figs turned around and started crawling down the trail.

“Looks like she finally caught scent of that citrus grove,” Orik commented. She’ll have plenty to eat there.”

“_With a new big, scaly friend, the heroes continued on their quest to find the fabled kumquats!_” Armilly exclaimed, running after the dragon.

“By Algyron—does she ever get tired?” Tarah moaned. She was sounding awfully tired...

“Barely ever on her own accord,” said Galleo, sounding just as exhausted.


	5. Deep In The Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today was strange for me
> 
> On that note, remind me to try the programs I already own on a file with an extension I've never seen before, before I download and install some old program from twenty years ago that can't even open the file

“Uuuuugh...”

Orik frowned and looked back at Armilly, who had her arms wrapped around her middle. “Are you okay, Armilly?”

“That’s the first noise she’s made in the past ten minutes. Of course she isn’t,” said Tarah.

Galleo walked over to Armilly, setting a hand on her back. “Is it your stomach, ‘Milly?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she groaned, leaning into him weakly.

He wrapped his arm around her back to give her some more support. “This was bound to happen; you swallowed a rock, for goodness’ sake...”

Sensing her discomfort, Benji hopped off of his owner’s shoulder and dove into the folds of Armilly’s cowl, cozily settling right next to her face. “Hey, Benji doesn’t seem to be angry at you anymore, at least!” Galleo said, trying to find some light in the situation.

Sadly, that did little to comfort Armilly and she just sighed. “Can we keep going please? I wanna get out of here...”

Now that was a shock to hear; Armilly usually never wanted an adventure to end, Algyron forbid _going home_—so for her to say this, she must really not be feeling well. Who knew that something as simple as a rock could drag her down…

“All right, all right… Hang in there; we’ll get you a lemon. Coco told me those are good for upset stomachs.”

Tarah’s mouth curved up into a snarky grin. “Did you attend her class or somethin’?”

“I was helping her out in class the day they covered lemons, so… yes and no. I learned a lot from the experience.”

“Perhaps you two should visit her class sometime,” Orik said to the twins.

“Pfft, no way, plants are—”

“I’d love to!”

“—Totally awesome!” Tarah quickly corrected herself, a mixture of fluster and surprise on her face. She didn’t think her brother would be so interested, but she didn’t want to disappoint him.

“...I believe ol’ Figs may have found something,” Orik muttered suddenly, pointing ahead. Sure enough, the dragon mentioned had changed from her slow, meticulous pacing down the path as she followed the fruity scent in the air to energetic bounding, her tail waving around so wildly it kept colliding with the tree trunks lining the path.

“Yeah, I think we basically made it,” said Tarah, her ears perking up. “C’mon, let’s go!” She and her brother got down on their hands and feet, taking off to catch up with the excited dragon.

“Wait!...Um, I don’t think Armilly can go that fast right now,” said Galleo.

“We’ll catch up on our own time,” said Orik, “Besides, I don’t believe that fruit is going anywhere.”

* * *

The citrus grove was quite possibly the brightest place in the Haunted Forest, yellow sunlight filtering through the trees, giving the bountiful fruit hanging off the trees a beautiful sheen that made them look only more mouthwatering. The entire grove was much more lush compared to the rest of the forest: leaves and fruit filled the trees and the grass underfoot was long and soft to the touch. Figs had tackled an orange tree, branches shaking about noisily as she climbed around and cleared it of its bounty.

Tarah was looking at the bushes, presumably watching Thayne do something, when the other three finally arrived. Armilly tugged against Galleo towards a lemon tree she had spotted, tiredly grunting at him. “All right, all right, give me a minute...”

While Galleo walked her over to the tree and had her settle under it, Orik had gone up to Tarah, and before he could ask anything, she said, “We always collected the stuff we ate in a couple of big baskets we stole from the market. We hid them in the bushes.” Just as she finished, Thayne wandered out, dragging two big baskets that were as big as him.

“One basket should be enough, right?”

“Yeah, but keep the other one around just in case. They look like they were eaten up by bugs...”

Thayne shrugged and lifted one of the baskets, nodding at Tarah. With Orik following, they walked up to a tree that was relatively shorter than the other trees in the grove, but just as full of fruit. Plenty of kumquats to spare; they would be able to get their needed amount and then some.

Tarah jumped onto the tree trunk and scaled the side with ease, disappearing into the leaves. There was a bit of rustling and a small fruit appeared from the branches, falling right into the basket. Thayne reached in, pulled it out, and took a big bite. “It’s been so long since I had one of these; they’re as tasty as I remember!” Another kumquat plopped into the basket, and Thayne looked up at Orik. “You want one?”

“You know what, I think I will have one; thank you Thayne.”

The boy stuffed what was left of his kumquat in his mouth and grabbed the second one, giving it to Orik. He then reassumed his position by the basket, watching his sister clamber around and knock fruit off the branches, repositioning the basket whenever he needed to.

Meanwhile, Galleo was making sure Armilly was comfortable in the shade of the lemon tree. He had a gut feeling the strong citrus scent wafting around the grove was making her feel worse… Benji seemed reluctant to leave her cowl, which only furthered his suspicions.

With how tall he was, reaching a lemon was an easy task for him—cutting it open, however, would be hard, since he had nothing to cut it with. But then a fun idea popped into his head.

“Orik, think fast!” he yelled, tossing the lemon to him.

Orik’s hand had immediately flown to his katana, and in the blink of an eye, the lemon had been sliced in half by his deadly weapon. “...You could’ve just asked for a pocket knife or something,” Thayne commented.

To be fair, Galleo was growing utterly tired of this whole fiasco and wasn’t thinking the straightest. That had obviously slipped his mind and he was excited by the prospect that he could spice things up a little. “Where’s the fun in that?” he eventually got out.

“...Fair point, I guess?”

Galleo shrugged, thanked Orik and picked up the lemon slices, returning to Armilly. She looked absolutely miserable and had Galleo not known the cause of her suffering, he would be concerned. Not that he _wasn’t_ concerned for her now, but her being miserable like this was a big indicator that something was up. As crazy as she could be, she was his friend, and he cared about her and wanted her to be happy.

Which was why he hated what he was about to do…

“I know you’re not gonna like this but...” he sighed and held out half of the lemon to her. “Suck on this; hopefully it’ll give you some kind of relief.

Armilly, looking defeated, groaned and weakly grabbed it from him. She put it up to her mouth and squeezed it, shuddering at what definitely was the yucky, bitter taste of the juice pouring into her mouth.

Galleo sat down next to her and watched as the twins did their work at the kumquat tree, the number of fruits in their basket steadily increasing. The sound of rustling leaves from the other side had ceased; and Figs had settled on the ground, making happy, satisfied noises. The orange tree definitely looked a lot more empty now that she had cleaned it out. At some point Orik had wandered over to her and scratched her snout, and she responded by drumming her tail against the ground in enjoyment.

When the twins’ basket was filled to the brim with fruit, Tarah descended from the treetops and was met by her brother snickering at her. “What?”

Thayne wiped his hand across her face. “There’s juice on your face!” He looked at his hand, realizing he now had the dried juice on himself, too. “It’s all sticky!”

“Now you’re sticky!” Tarah said, catching a case of the giggles too.

“That’s not my—” before he could finish, Tarah wiped her sticky hand on his ear, getting more of the gunk on him. “How dare you,” he said in a playful tone.

Without warning he suddenly tackled his sister on the ground and tried to get back at her, spreading the sticky stuff on her hood. Tarah did likewise; and the two of them went at it for a good while, giggling the whole time.

“You two do this fully aware you’ll have to take a long bath tonight?” Orik said as he walked back to them. The twins hated getting themselves cleaned—either that, or they had been on the run for so long they weren’t used to taking baths. The others weren’t quite sure on the reason why.

Thayne got off of his sister and helped her to her feet. “I was already sticky anyway,” Tarah said. “I was going to town on those; I forgot how good they were.”

That prompted a very concerned “How many did you have?” from Thayne. Orik was now looking a little worried himself and Tarah almost laughed. She was old enough to know her limits, she was a big girl!

Orik must’ve seen right through her because he said, “Sometimes you don’t realize your limits. We’re just concerned for you.”

“All right,” Tarah sighed, “I lost count, but I had at least ten.”

Orik’s already deep frown deepened even more. It deepened so much, to a point of deepness so deep that it deeply confused Tarah, who didn’t think this was something so deep.

After a (deep) moment of silence, Thayne said, “Well, at least it wasn’t thirty—”

“_T__hayne!_ C’mooon, not when the others are like, right here.”

“Sorry,” he whimpered, shrinking behind her.

Orik still looked very deeply concerned, so Tarah tried to lighten up the situation a little. “_Dad_, I’ll be fine. No worries.”

…Maybe that was the wrong thing to say. Orik stiffened up just like he did earlier, his eyes widening. This time, however, she could see his lips trembling a little.

“I think you broke him,” said Thayne.

“You know how to replace brain cogs, Galleo?” Tarah yelled. “I think I might have sprung one loo—”

“No I don’t, I’m—wait. You didn’t actually...” Galleo’s expression shifted to shock so slowly, you could see it happening. His shoulders slowly rose and stiffened, his pupils shrunk and his jaw fell—and to top it all of his knees started quaking. The poor guy looked absolutely terrified and now Tarah regretted saying anything at all.

Fortunately, Orik eased all their worries by putting a hand up to his mouth, blinking rapidly. He looked overwhelmed, rather than appearing to have lost a brain cog. Seeing this, all the worry instantly left Galleo and he fell over. “Thank Algyron, brain cogs absolutely terrify me for some reason...”

While Tarah laughed at his misfortune, Thayne decided to check up on Orik… Mustering up the courage to do something big in the process. Tarah picked up on it quickly from his slow, cautious movements. _Is he going to… oh scrap he is—_

Thayne tugged on Orik’s loose sleeve. “Are you okay, Dad?”

Orik looked blown away—so blown away he seemed as if he would keel over, had he not knelt down. “No—yes, I—I don’t know anymore… Did—did you mean that for real?” To think that the twins saw him as a parental figure was overwhelming him to the point of tears. The twins were stubborn and closed off when they first met, but they eventually opened up… the rest of the gang agreed to make them feel as comfortable as possible with them, especially after hearing the pain they faced in their past. Orik, especially, went to great lengths to make sure they felt safe and loved—it was hard and at times heartwrenching, but the twins opened up to the others and came to trust them. So for Orik to hear this admission… he was feeling so many things at once and he _almost_ wished he had his mask to hide behind right now. All those feelings were threatening to spill out, and in front of the others—

Thayne folded his hands, looking down at them. “You… You’ve been a better dad to us than the managers at the orphanage ever were.”

“Yeah, I don’t think even Hawker Jim cared about us this much.” Tarah’s heart was beating a mile a minute right now; she couldn’t believe she was admitting this—but seeing Orik so overwhelmed sparked something inside of her. She knew something had been burdening him for a while, and he had done so much for her and her brother. Perhaps it was time to pay that kindness back—to give him the comfort, the ease of mind that _he _needed.

Thayne gave him a hug and Tarah followed suit. “You’ve done so much for us, Dad. Thank you.”

Orik squeezed his eyes shut, the first tears spilling out as he hugged them back. “I… I’m so happy to hear, and overwhelmed, honestly...”

Galleo still hadn’t gotten up from faceplanting into the dirt, and, from what he heard, something odd had happened. Turning his head to look didn’t help him much. Orik looked like he was crying and he was hugging the twins, who were hugging him too. What happened; why was everyone sappy all of a sudden—

“Nnnng...”

Well, not _everybody_ was being sappy.

Galleo finally hauled himself up to check on Armilly: she had sucked the lemon dry and was clutching her tummy again, her eyes shut tightly. “Did it help at all, ‘Milly?”

“Not that much...”

“We should probably go then; I think the twins got enough kumquats.”

“Wait,” said Armilly, her eyes snapping open. “We can’t leave our dragon friend here!”

“Armilly has a point,” said Orik. He had finally gotten up, holding Thayne on his hip, Tarah hanging from his shoulders. “We cannot leave Figs to wreak havoc on the wildlife. She does not belong in this region.”

He was met by very, very confused stares. “What?”

“Nothing,” Galleo muttered. He didn’t want to open this can of worms right now.

“Maybe we can bring it back with us,” Thayne said, “Copernica’s smart; she’ll know what to do.”

“Yeah, she’s probably read those dragon taming books!” Armilly pointed out.

They all glanced at the dragon in question—she had gotten up and was stretching, flapping her ginormous wings.

Galleo glanced at Armilly. She had one of those looks on her faces—that look that meant she had a very bad idea and she was about to announce it to the world. Galleo had already mentally prepared a few dozen rebuttals—that is, until the realization of what she was going to say hit him hard in the face, like Copernica’s Book Bash.

“Oh no. No, we are _not_ doing that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been playing the goose game and I feel like our fren the goose would like kumquats very much


	6. You're Lucky I Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little warning ahead of time, there’s some barfing in this chapter
> 
> Not in explicit detail but it’s still there

“How did you know I was gonna say we should ride the dragon?” asked Armilly.

“I think the real question is why would I not know?” he gave her a knowing grin. “I know you, ‘Milly. You were giving that dragon that particular look of yours.”

“I have a look?”

“A look that basically screams that you have a bad idea, yes.”

“...it’s a bad idea?”

“..._Yes?_”

Galleo didn’t know what to expect when he said that, but it certainly wasn’t for his friend to look absolutely devastated. She looked like someone just told her her house burned down.

“Aw, Galleo, c’mon...” Jutting out her jaw, she gave him the most pitiful look that this side of Alysidhia could have possibly seen. She knew it looked extremely out of place on her normally cheerful face and used it quite often before to earn her way.

“Nope.” That was not going to work on him again despite falling for it so many times in the past. He was standing his ground.

“‘Leo—”

“No.”

“Galleo, my tummy hurts…”

“If I have to carry you home, I will; but we are not riding that damn—”

“I apologize for interrupting, but I don’t believe it is that bad of an idea.”

Orik. Of all people, he thought this was a good idea?

The incredulous look Galleo was giving him practically begged for an explanation, so that was what he gave:

“I took a dragon-flying class, remember?” Orik put a hand on his chin as he mulled over the memories. “...I think I still remember the common commands.”

“...Oh yeah.” An awkward pause. “...You really think this is a good idea, though?”

“It is, if executed properly!” To make his case, Orik walked up to Figs and knelt down in front of her head. Thayne clambered onto his other shoulder to free his arm so he could trace two fingers down her snout. She perked her head up in response and then slightly repositioned herself so that her body was flat on the ground, her wings nearly flush against her body.

“Yeah the dragon seems like it’ll listen to you but that’s not my point. What if we fall off or we crash into something, or—”

“Well I for one am confident in Dad’s dragon-flying abilities.”

All eyes landed on Tarah, who was still clinging to Orik’s shoulder. Her cheeks flushed into a bright crimson red. “Did I just say that out loud?”

“Yeah, sis, and you sounded really dorky.”

“_Hey, you called him Dad first!_”

“All right, listen,” Galleo butted in, “I still have a watermelon to deliver, so I am going to go and do that, and then we are _walking_—”

“Flying!”

Armilly had the smuggest look on her face and Galleo so desperately wanted to wipe it off.

“We can take the watermelon for you. I don’t think we’ll all fit anyway.” The twins climbed off Orik and walked up to Galleo, expectantly looking at him. He hugged the box of watermelon closer to his chest.

“Uh-uh. I don’t want to go on that dragon.”

“We already had to go to the orphanage today, so we can drop it off for you and you can get home faster,” said Tarah. A grin was pulling at the edges of her mouth. “Don’t try to hide it; I can see it on your face. You really want to go home.”

Galleo wilted like a thirsty flower. Algyron really had something against him today, didn’t he?

“Don’t make me take it from you!”

“All right, here,” he growled as he shoved the box into Tarah with enough force to make her fall on her bottom. Then he walked away.

Needless to say, the little bunny was not happy.

“HEY!” she snarled, “YOU CAN’T JUST SHOVE ME AROUND LI—”

“_I’m not listening~!_” he said in a singsong voice, which, out of him, was very unexpected and a bit odd. Armilly, in her tuckered-out state, found it hilarious and descended into hysterics. Galleo sighed, kneeling down beside her and setting his arm under her shoulder to lift her up. “C’mon, let’s uh… get on that dragon, I guess.”

“See you guys later!” Thayne said to them with a cheerful little wave. Tarah offered no such farewell, still grumpy about being pushed around so _ungracefully_. She started dragging the box away without waiting for him. “Huh? Hey! Wait for me!”

Watching the twins run off, Galleo said, “I feel kinda bad now, actually. I think I was too rough with her there...”

“You were tired and not quite in the right state of mind,” Orik assured him. “You will be able to apologize to her later. I don’t believe she will hold it against you for that long, anyway.”

For Galleo’s frayed nerves, that was a huge relief to hear.

Armilly squirmed in his grasp, reminding him that she was there. “Are we gonna leave now?”

He glanced at the dragon. It looked back with its big, innocent shiny eyes, blissfully unaware of the deep-seated fear that made his knees quake and his feet glued to the spot. This was all wrong, he didn’t sign up for any of this at all.

“Galleo?” Armilly asked with an equal amount of oblivion. Only Orik seemed to notice his anxiety and walked up to him.

“Listen, if you’re scared of what’s going to happen when we get on that creature’s back… I was too; when I was being taught. I learned that it’s all a matter of trust when it comes to flying these majestic beasts. You trust them, and they’ll trust you.” His voice was filled with certainty as he spoke; and perhaps a touch of amusement.

“How do you know that?”

“Learned the hard way. The stupid scaly thing sensed that I was scared and flung me off.”

A wide, silly grin came onto Armilly’s face. “Is that how you hurt your arm?”

“I would’ve thought that _you_ of all people would know the answer to that,” Orik responded with an equally goofy smile.

“Not being scared is a very hard thing for me to do and you both know that...” said Galleo, not comforted one bit.

A muffled twittering came from Armilly’s hood, a mound moving around in the folds until it came into the front, revealing a broody Benji. He gave an anxious squawk before fluttering up to Galleo’s shoulder to give him a nuzzle—which Galleo gladly accepted.

Orik’s face lit up like a candle. “You know what? I just remembered something—after my incident they introduced Benjiro birds into the school and it helped a lot more than the teachers expected—not only because it helped with students’ nerves, but it also threw off the dragons’ senses. I can’t recall how, but it did.” He pointed at Benji with his good arm. “Keep Benji with you and you should be fine.”

Smiling, Galleo gave Benji a little rub on his tiny head. “That won’t be a problem for me!”

Despite this small boost in Galleo’s confidence, it took Orik a good ten minutes to get him situated on the dragon’s back—the poor guy still had last minute anxiety that he couldn’t shake off. That, and dealing with an Armilly that was so tired and miserable that she was actually being _uncooperative_ was not an experience he had practice with. Finally, everyone was settled, Armilly leaning against his back and Galleo situated behind her to make sure she didn’t slip off. Galleo was also holding the basket of coveted kumquats, the twins’ second basket placed upside down over it so none would fall out.

“Are we ready?” Orik asked to confirm, looking back at them. Armilly gave a tired groan and Galleo frantically fiddled with Benji’s key.

“Just get it over with already,” he whimpered.

Shrugging, Orik turned back around and traced a line up Figs’ neck, wrapping his arm around it immediately after to brace himself. “Hold on tight!”

He felt Armily frantically clutch his waist as the beast started bounding forward. Galleo was already muttering short little phrases to calm himself down. After gaining a decent amount of speed, Figs spread her mighty wings and flapped, propelling herself upwards. The rushing wind in their faces was enough to make Armilly perk up with a thrilled holler, while Galleo just screamed.

“Dear Algyron, help me.”

* * *

Copernica should’ve known better than to let Armilly tag along with Galleo.

Now she was sitting at her desk, facing a room full of impatient students in awkward silence. She had already told them about the situation and why they couldn’t start right away. But they were getting bored _quick_. She already had to stop a group of unruly ones trying to light their _burps_ on fire with some fire spells. She had never seen such tomfoolery; not even back when she went to college…

Eventually it just got so quiet and _awkward_ in there she couldn’t take the suffocating feeling of both anymore and pulled out her old violin she hadn’t touched in a while, brushing the dust off. The class always enjoyed her second passion a lot, and it would get rid of the _horrid silence_.

Before she could finish tuning it, however, there was a loud _bang _on the roof, followed by scratching and scuffling sounds—not that Copernica was paying attention to that because the whole room shook with the noise and she had to bolt up to the case that held the glass alchemy bottles, desperately pushing against it to try and stop it shaking. Whatever bottles that did slip off, thank goodness, were caught by a few pupils that had run up to help.

The room stopped shaking. Then, there was a loud, _very distinctive_ gag. Followed by a furious, “_Not in my face, do it off the side of the—_”

Whoever that was couldn’t get to finish because they were interrupted by retching and a gross splattering noise. Some students looked uncomfortable, squirming in their seats. Some of them were cackling.

Copernica pushed herself off of the case and fixed her glasses, which had gotten dislodged in the chaos. “I’m afraid of what will greet me if I go out there.”

That prompted a few giggles even out of the quiet ones—the class knew their teacher had crazy friends that often got into even crazier situations and it wasn’t hard to believe they were involved in this one.

After making sure everyone was back in their seats she heard a knock at the door. Gulping, she went to answer it—and balked at the sight that greeted her.

Galleo, who looked less than pleased, was supporting nearly all of an exhausted Armilly’s weight in one arm, a big basket full of kumquats in the other. Poor little Benji couldn’t decide who needed more attention, fervently hopping back and forth between Armilly and Galleo’s shoulders.

To top this piece of crazy cake, however, was Orik, petting what was most definitely a _dragon_ behind of them. Compared to the others, he actually seemed to have his usual demeanor, a smile teasing at the edge of his mouth.

After a very, _very_ long silence that bothered her more than the past half-hour of silence somehow did, Copernica found her voice and muttered, “Long story?”

Galleo sighed, “Yep.”

Copernica pressed a hand to her temple, shaking her head. “Galleo, place the kumquats on my desk, and bring ‘Milly with you. I’ll brew something for her stomach.” She moved out of the way to let them come in, and after they did she blocked the doorway again, fixing Orik with a stern look. “You two are staying out here for now and I am going to have a long conversation with all of you later.”

“Okay!” Orik said so nonchalantly it made her steam boil with frustration.

“You’re lucky I love you guys so much,” she said as she shut the door. Orik only continued to scratch Figs’ snout, smiling as she nuzzled up to him.

“Don’t mind her. She doesn’t know what a good girl you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I’m gonna be honest here for a minute
> 
> Today was not such a great day for me but as I sat down to finish this, nearly all my worries were lost to the keyboard. It makes my day a little brighter knowing that I have the power to make someone smile _right at my fingertips._
> 
> Anyway, my first Quest fic is officially finished yay! I hope you had fun reading because I definitely had fun writing it.


End file.
